The Hamm’s Brewery sign, with its 13-foot-tall 3D neon chalice — the glass filled and emptied with rings of light! — was a surprise reader favorite. When built in 1954, near the freeway at 1550 Bryant St., it was the largest commercial sign on the West Coast. It appeared briefly in “Dirty Harry,” and was written about by everyone from Herb Caen to Charles McCabe.

And then it was gone, removed from the 12-story building by crane in 1975. There were no protests, and few clues as to its fate. I scoured the archives and did some amateur sleuthing beyond that, but the best that I can come up with is two vague reports that the giant glass was hauled away on a flatbed truck to parts unknown — possibly Southern California.

Cue the soundtrack to “Rambo II.”If the Hamm’s Brewery schooner has been melted down to slag, then let us find that fact out for sure and have a proper burial. And if it still exists, rusting out in a warehouse with broken bulbs and a tuft of wires hanging out the bottom? Then let us make up for the wrongs we’ve committed, and do everything we can to rescue this landmark. Murdock, I’m coming to get … you!

Do you have any leads on the whereabouts of the Hamm’s Brewery sign? Contact me at phartlaub@sfchronicle.com.

In the meantime, enjoy the six previously unpublished photos that I located in the Chronicle archives and placed in the above gallery. These were taken in June 1954 just as the sign was finished — note the crew on ropes. (I included a larger version of my favorite photo below, mostly to prove that San Franciscans in 1954 liked to park on the sidewalk, too.)

I’ve also included a short Chronicle article about the construction of the Hamm’s sign, and a much longer McCabe review of a new brand of Hamm’s-produced beer. I’m anticipating questions about the artist collective that formed in the beer vats in the early 1980s, so we’ll finish with an article that actually refers to human beings as “vat rats” below.

Hope you enjoyed this. Help me find the Hamm’s Brewery sign!

PETER HARTLAUB is the pop culture critic at the San Francisco Chronicle and founder/editor of The Big Event. He takes requests. Contact him at phartlaub@sfchronicle.com. Follow him on Twitter @peterhartlaub. Follow The Big Event on Facebook.